Your Right to Know

The Ohio House passed a wide-ranging education bill yesterday focused on reducing high-school
dropouts and giving more high-school students the ability to earn college credit.

As proposed by Gov. John Kasich, the bill renames the state’s post-secondary education program
that allows high-school students to take college courses, and it requires nearly all public
universities to participate. It also requires the participation of all high schools and ensures
that courses taken would count toward a degree.

“It opens dual enrollment to more students, and it prevents bad community schools from
reopening,” said Rep. Andrew Brenner, R-Powell.

The latter provision is intended to stop failing charter schools from reopening under a new
name.

The bill also would require educational service centers to get state approval to become a
statewide charter sponsor, and it would force sponsors to examine a charter’s finances and
enrollment more closely before state funding begins.

TheDispatch reported in January that an unprecedented 17 Columbus charters had closed this
school year — nine of them just a few months after they opened. Those nine cost taxpayers at least
$1.6 million, and five were sponsored by the North Central Ohio Educational Service Center.

The bill also requires districts, starting in the 2016-17 school year, to develop methods to
identify students at risk of dropping out and then create specific academic pathways to get them to
graduate.

The bill, part of Kasich’s off-year budget proposal that the House broke into several pieces,
also opens career-technical programs to students as early as the seventh grade.

It passed 61-28. Some Democrats objected to provisions expanding vouchers in Cleveland and said
it did not go far enough in increasing charter-school accountability.

The House also passed a pair of bills stemming from Kasich’s proposal that legislators say will
help both college students and military veterans gain skills and employment.

Major parts of the higher-education bill center on funding of public community colleges and
offering two-year schools a chance to freeze their tuition and offer students certainty on what
their degrees ultimately will cost.

“Ohio’s success depends on a skilled workforce, and that depends on a quality education,” said
Rep. Cliff Rosenberger, R-Clarksville, before the House passed the measure, 90-0.

The legislation would allow community colleges to offer a “guarantee” to students that tuition
rates would remain frozen while they earn degrees, with such programs subject to approval by state
higher-education officials.

State funding for community and technical colleges also would be revised to reward schools whose
students meet benchmarks for academic success and degree attainment.

In a separate bill, veterans would get a no-cost boost toward earning a degree under a
requirement that state universities and colleges grant them course credit after evaluating their
military experience and education.

Military experience also could be used toward qualifying for a state occupational license.